Increased fees on expats part of health reform program: Minister
Kuwait abides by OPEC’s oil output quota
KUWAIT: Health Minister Dr Jamal Al-Harbi stressed that increasing health service fees for expatriates was necessary as part of a comprehensive health reform program. Harbi added that the nature of doctors’ jobs and duties might make it difficult to impose the fingerprint system on them, because this might affect the healthcare procedures and requirements needed for patients. Harbi also stressed that it is hard to nationalize medical, nursing and technical jobs in the near future.
On another health concern, the Capital health zone director Dr Fatima Al-Asoumi said the new Amiri Hospital would be completed by mid-2018. She noted that the current Amiri Hospital’s casualty department is being expanded to include 13 extra beds and develop its recovery rooms. “Expansion will be done in three phases, of which the first one is already completed and will be opened soon,” she added, noting that work on the second phase will commence in three weeks and the third would commence after three months.
Fuel prices
Responding to local press reports published yesterday about Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s (KPC) request to restudy prices of all fuel types pending increasing them, KPC yesterday issued a statement explaining that its role was only to review prices and that a committee was responsible for monitoring international oil prices to use them as references in determining the prices of fuels in local markets. KPC also stressed that it reviews these products’ international prices monthly, then reports the study results to the committee entrusted with restudying all government-provided subsidies at the finance ministry.
Gas consumption
Minister of Oil and
Electricity and Water Essam
Al-Marzouq said Kuwait consumed 229 billion cubic feet of gas during the summer months (April-September), an increase of 14 billion cubic feet compared to the same period last year. Marzouq stressed that the highest consumption rates were in July with 41.666 billion cubic feet consumed, compared to 37.2 billion cubic feet in the same period of the previous year. Marzouq explained that Kuwait’s consumption of gas in the same period of 2015 was 208.5 billion cubic feet, which jumped to 214.6 billion cubic feet in 2016 and 229 billion in 2017. Notably, Kuwait has signed three contracts with British Petroleum, Shell and Qatar Gas to import 2.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas annually for four years (2016-2020). KUWAIT: Kuwait has affirmed its adherence to the crude oil output quota as set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Organization (OPEC), estimated at 2.75 million barrels per day. Jamal Jaafar, Chief Executive Officer of Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), said yesterday that the company is committed to the production share, as decided by OPEC, estimated at 2.75 million barrels per day, indicating that there “is no necessity to hike the (crude) production.”
KOC’s output capacity is forecast to reach 3.65 million barrels per day by 2020, Jaafar said in a statement, adding that the company production of non-associated gas has currently reached 210 million cubic feet and would exceed 500 million cubic feet in January. Jaafar was speaking at a ceremony organized by Schlumberger company, specialized in oil fields’ services, on the occasion of employing Kuwaiti citizens. Maan Razzouqi, the head of the North Middle East at Schlumberger, said the company hired 20 nationals, adding that it planned to employ many Kuwaitis during this year.